PRECARITY – AN ISSUE OF CHANGED LABOUR MARKET AND EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS OR OF CHANGED SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEMS

A new working paper had been published under the heading

PRECARITY – AN ISSUE OF CHANGED LABOUR MARKET AND EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS OR OF CHANGED SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEMS

Reading the abstract may raise your interest in reading the entire paper, prepared for this years EUROMEMO-workshop in London

The fact of an increasing precarity of employment is widely analysed and discussed although we surely face various different definitional approaches. An important part of the differences in the definitions (as matter of the conceptualisation of precarity as analytical and political issue) is due to not tackling sufficiently consensual the following question: Is precarity a matter of dissolving the standard pattern of entering the social security system (i.e. fundamentally rejecting the right to work) or is it a matter of ‘lacking flexibility’ and even retrenchment of social security systems?

The contribution will, first, discuss some of the conceptual and definitional questions. Second, some broad outline of the situation will be given by empirical statements. A final third section will formulate policy demands in a long- and a short-term perspective.

The presentation is connected with editing a book in this area. The relevant individual countries that will be looked at in the book are Hungary, Italy, and Russia.